Paying the Piper

A serial kidnapper known as the Piper spent years snatching children from San Francisco’s wealthiest families. When crime reporter Scott Fleetwood got himself involved in one of the cases, the Piper went from kidnapper to murderer…and vanished. Now, after Fleetwood has languished under crippling guilt and public scorn for eight years, the Piper emerges from hiding to kidnap Fleetwood’s son. He’s demanding $2 million, but it’s not really about the money: the Piper wants blood - and he’ll use Fleetwood to get it.

The narration was top notch. One narrator but used different voices and did it very well.

Any additional comments?

The story was a good idea but, I don't think there was an editor involved. What the book needed was an editor who could edit like the Marines' cut hair. By the 30th + chapter I didn't care if they ever got the kids back.

Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, Colin Thatcher seems at first like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life.

Blue Labyrinth

A long-buried family secret resurfaces when one of Aloysius Pendergast's most implacable enemies shows up on his doorstep as a murdered corpse. The mystery has all the hallmarks of the perfect murder, save for an enigmatic clue: a piece of turquoise lodged in the stomach of the deceased. The gem leads Pendergast to an abandoned mine on the shore of California's desolate Salton Sea, which in turn propels him on a journey of discovery deep into his family's sinister past.

All the Things You Are

About to turn 40, there’s no doubt in her mind that suburban wife and mother-of-two Claire Taylor has settled. A wild week in Chicago may have shaken things up a bit, but as she turns the key in her Wisconsin home on the eve of Hallowe’en, she knows that this is where her life is. Except that it’s all gone. The house stripped, her husband Danny, her daughters, all gone: no message, nothing.

The Vanishing

Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired...and who the world believes is dead.

The Profiler's Daughter: Sky Stone, Book 1

The Profiler's Daughter is a psychologically haunting thriller that combines murder mystery, love triangle, and family intrigue in one satisfying page burner. Sky Stone was born into the wealth and privilege of Boston's oldest Brahmin family but chooses instead to follow in the footsteps of her deceased father, legendary FBI profiler Monk Stone. In the chilly morning hours before the Boston Marathon, when a beautiful university student is found strangled and mutilated, her body left at the base of Heartbreak Hill, Sky returns from self-imposed exile to investigate.

It's been about 2 years since I've disliked a book this much. Gone Girl I didn't like because of the ending but it was a great read until the end. I can't even say that about Profiler's Daughter. It's so disjointed almost like the author put 2 separate books together. Not fish nor fowl.

The Hit

Will Robie is a master of killing. A highly skilled assassin, Robie is the man the U.S. government calls on to eliminate the worst of the worst - enemies of the state, monsters committed to harming untold numbers of innocent victims.No one else can match Robie's talents as a hitman...no one, except Jessica Reel. A fellow assassin, equally professional and dangerous, Reel is every bit as lethal as Robie. And now, she's gone rogue, turning her gun sights on other members of their agency.

14

There are some odd things about Nate’s new apartment. Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn’t perfect, it’s livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don’t nag at him too much. At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbor across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela’s apartment. And Tim’s. And Veek’s.

The Chaperone

>The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922, and the summer that would change them both. Only a few years before becoming a famous actress and an icon for her generation, a 15-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita to make it big in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle is a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip.

The historical era and the older vs. younger views. Go from prohibition to moon landing.

Have you listened to any of Elizabeth McGovern’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Not sure. She did a great job.

If you could take any character from The Chaperone out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Cora, of course.

Any additional comments?

I thought this book was going to be about just a young girl and her chaperone but, it was so much more. Louise Brooks has always been an interesting figure. Cora is so staright laced and Louise is a total free spirit. Their conflicts were interesting and well written. There is prohibition, adoption, long skirts vs short skirts...to show your ankle or not. Birth control information but, only if you were married. Going to jail if you lived "in sin".

The Eye of Jade

Modern, independent Mei Wang runs her own PI business in Beijing; she even has that most modern of commodities, a male secretary. When a family friend asks her to locate a Han dynasty jade of great value that was taken from its museum during the years of the Cultural Revolution when Red Guards seized many relics, her investigation reveals a story that has more to do with the past and her own family history than she ever expected.

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